Field Guide

This online Field Guide is designed to help visitors enjoy and learn about unprotected wildlands in the North Cascades. We highly recommend that visitors explore the collection of web links below for information about the region, including natural and human history, things to do, and what to look for as you make your way through the North Cascades.

Washington State Route 20, the North Cascades Scenic Highway, is the primary corridor through the area. You'll want to visit the park’s main visitor center at Newhalem for interpretive displays and a view of the Picket Range. The park information centers in Sedro Woolley and Marblemount also provide guests with information. If you're planning a trip into the backcountry, a permit is required and available at the Marblemount station. Highway 20 is closed every winter, and subject to unscheduled closures year-round, so check current conditions before beginning your trip.

Many websites, guidebooks and maps are available that describe opportunities to see and enjoy the national park. See below for web links to some of the best online information.

About the North Cascades

Unprotected wildlands in the North Cascades range in elevation from less than 1,000 feet above sea level to almost 9,000 feet and are enjoyed by many thousands of visitors each year. A drive across the famed North Cascades Scenic Highway offers the easiest means of viewing some of the region’s spectacular high country. The highway crosses two high passes, Rainy Pass and Washington Pass, both rising to about 5,000 feet above sea level.

Cold arctic air masses from the north collide with moist marine air from over the Pacific Ocean, creating conditions for deep winter snowfall over much of the range, especially within the heavily glaciated area between Mount Baker and Ross Lake. Some areas can be blanketed with ten to twenty feet of snow in a typical winter, so no wonder the majority of glaciers in the lower forty-eight states are found in the North Cascades. Global warming is taking a toll on all that ice, however, with dozens of large glaciers generally receding much faster than we’d like.

A number of glaciers and craggy summits are visible along the North Cascades Highway, which normally opens in April or May and then closes again in November or December with the first or second big snow. (In 2009, the highway opened in late April.) Don’t miss the viewpoint above Diablo Lake and at Washington Pass for some of the best mountain scenery in America.

With the higher country (above 3,000 feet) generally buried under snow from November through June, most hiking, backpacking and horseback riding into the higher forests and meadows occur in summer and early fall. Even the lower-elevation slopes and valleys can be snowed in through the winter and well into the spring. Because of severe and unpredictable weather, buried trails, and considerable avalanche danger during the snow season, much of the region is inaccessible to all but the most experienced adventurers. For the rest of us, the peak season for good weather and snow-free trails is mid-July through September.

Want to see these places for yourself? Looking for an easy hike, a moderate weekend backpack, or a rugged climb up a big peak? Need a good campsite? A place to fish? A place the kids will enjoy? Or are you curious about the trees and wildflowers and wildlife that inhabit our spectacular American Alps? Need a primer on geology? It’s a pretty complex place up there, geologists say. How about the myriad stories of this fascinating place? Did you know that Native Americans presence in the North Cascades dates back more than 9,000 years? Did you know the Skagit River supports all five native species of salmon runs, the only river in Washington to do so? Did you know Jack Kerouac wrote The Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels atop a North Cascades peak?

Below we've collected some web links you can explore for lots of detailed information. (Clicking these links will open them in a new window.)